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Jeff Blair writes: Here's my Blue Jays to do list, remembering that their glaring needs are for a younger corner or middle infielder, another starting pitcher and catcher:

1. get rid of A.J. Burnett, either at the trade deadline or in the off-season. Eat however much salary you need to eat in order to get a useful young arn or player in return;

2. trade Troy Glaus for a young pitcher or corner or middle infielder - again, doing whatever financial fiddling is necessary;

3. try to leverage Matt Stairs or Reed Johnson at the trade deadline;

4. forget about Nos. 2, 3 and 4 if you win eight in a row against the Red Sox and Yankees.

I will be surprised if either of Burnett or Glaus are with the team in 2008.

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/stor ... uested=all

I wouldn't be surprised if that was to happen. I just don't know what they'll get for a 3B.

Basically everything the Jays want are hard to get and are being dangled for players like Willis, not a player like Burnett.

I agree, get what you can get for Glaus, at least. If something decent comes back for Burnett, take it. Afterwards, fire the manager and GM.

I had a dream last night we traded Glaus for J.J. Hardy and Change.

Get er done




BC would

we won't get much for Glaus or AJ... it isn't about the return though, it's about clearing the space.

The frustrating part is that JP just brought both of these guys in, not sure he deserves another chance to re-tool

Shaft443 wrote:we won't get much for Glaus or AJ... it isn't about the return though, it's about clearing the space.

The frustrating part is that JP just brought both of these guys in, not sure he deserves another chance to re-tool

He doesn't... but his contract means that he'll probably get one.

I'm totally against the idea that we should pay AJ's contract for him to play for another team. He has pitched well when he was healthy, with a great strikeout rate. You don't just move him for the sake of moving him.

For that matter, what team is going to give up a legit young arm for him?

Hell, trade Wells if you can.

PeterJ wrote:Hell, trade Wells if you can.

Yeah let's trade the whole team while we're at it...

^ Everyone except Rios and Doc.

risktaker91 wrote:^ Everyone except Rios and Doc.

I was being sarcastic...

Trading is easier said than done, Vernon just signed a huge contract extension I don't think he's gonna be traded anytime soon. He's still a very big piece of that team, even though he's not having an all-star season.

Numbers are just numbers...but that's all people look at.

...but aren't the numbers the culmination of a player's production on the field? When people just judge using a player's reputation and what they happen to see, they do things like give Juan Pierre $50 million.
I don't want to hijack the thread and turn it into a debate about statistical analasys, but I'm jus' sayin'.

No, I totally understand your point and I was waiting for a comment of the sort after reading my post. I mean, Vernon seems to be a great leader for this team and just because the stats are not reflecting his salary, people will be saying that he's not the franchise player anymore since Rios is tearing it up this year (and I like Rios a lot too).

So, I know that people didn't blame him that much for the problems of the team even though he's struggling...but saying that he's needs to go is just wrong to me.

Heh, Vernon's the last guy we want to trade. Gold Glove defense + traditionally good hitting = not worth moving right now.

Glaus, it'd be a shame to move that kind of power, really. I'd like a more athletic player on the hot corner but his bad is going to be tough to replace if we move him.

I wouldn't be at all opposed to trading Burnett, since he's perpetually injured and isn't that great a pitcher even when he's healthy. He's exactly a .500 pitcher on his career, with a career WHIP around 1.3, an ERA that doesn't stray to far from league average, gives up around 3.8 BB/9, puts up about 8.1 K/9, 7.8 H/9, 0.8 HR/9...

Burnett's a decent pitcher but we're paying some hefty coin for a guy who has 2 30-game seasons since becoming a starter. His injury concerns and plain performance really aren't that special. He's a nice thought because of his fireball and he's got decent stuff that aside but he's really not a really GOOD starter, just an average one. The Jays need a second go-to pitcher very, very badly, especially guys who have better ERAs.

You'll notice that our starters are all giving up an ERA of 4.3 or worse (except for Marcum), that we've got three starters giving up ERAs over 5 and only three guys with winning records (Halladay, Marcum and McGowan).

So we've got a very clear core rotation and then we've got the last two spots that have been bouncing between Towers, Chacin, 10 games for Okha, 3 total to Taubenheim and Zambrano...

And Marcum spent 13 games in the 'pen, so we weren't even fully utilizing him (he's got an ERA a hair over 3.7 right now).

I wouldn't mind trading Burnett... if we get a pitcher in return.

As much as I'm not overwhelmed with his brilliance as a pitcher, he's still not stupidly expensive nor is he incompetent. He's just rarely around. He's giving us about 6.4 innings per start over the last year and a half and has posted ERAs of 3.98 and 4.31 so far as a Jay. That's pretty acceptable, especially his performance last year.

So yeah, if we give up Burnett in a trade, it had better be for a pitcher.

Likewise, if we give up Glaus, we'd best be getting power back to fill that void.

I don't see the point in trading Glaus. He's the second best third-baseman in the AL this season when he's been healthy; him and Burnett aren't the problems here. Our problem is that we're getting below-average to downright dreadful production out of way too many positions (C, 1B, SS, LF, starters #4 & #5).
Yes, Glaus and Burnett are injury prone, but when they're healthy they remian two of the brighter spots on our team, and trading them without getting similar calibur players in return is only going to exacerbate the problem unless we're planning to go back into a full-on rebuilding mode.

SmallTownJournalist303 wrote:I don't see the point in trading Glaus. He's the second best third-baseman in the AL this season when he's been healthy; him and Burnett aren't the problems here. Our problem is that we're getting below-average to downright dreadful production out of way too many positions (C, 1B, SS, LF, starters #4 & #5).
Yes, Glaus and Burnett are injury prone, but when they're healthy they remian two of the brighter spots on our team, and trading them without getting similar calibur players in return is only going to exacerbate the problem unless we're planning to go back into a full-on rebuilding mode.

It's really not that they are problem players.

I like Glaus a lot, especially after today's game...

Really, it's that they seem to be are most valuable pieces of tradebait.

Royce Clayton, Aaron Hill, etc, these guys aren't going to get us anything back.

You've got to trade something for something, 9/10 times.

True, and I don't have a problem trading them as long as we're getting a proper package. I just don't want JP dealing them for a handful of mediocrities to try and fill the various holes on our roster.

SmallTownJournalist303 wrote:True, and I don't have a problem trading them as long as we're getting a proper package. I just don't want JP dealing them for a handful of mediocrities to try and fill the various holes on our roster.

That's only sensible; obviously, if we can't find anything reasonable, I don't want to pull a trade just for the sake of trading them.

I LIKE Glaus; he's not a bad fielder, he's an excellent bat and he's generally one of the reasons the middle of our lineup is a real pain in the arse for the opposition pitchers on any given day. We run Rios, Glaus, Wells and Thomas in succession, which is a pretty dangerous combination whether they're hitting well on the season or not.

I'm not so fond of Burnett, because he's frail AND a wussy and he's a middling pitcher even when he's healthy. And he's overpaid. But he's not a BAD pitcher, so that means that there is no really good reason to pull the trigger on a trade involving him unless it's worth it.

DH is pretty useless as well.

stro4swift wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Yeah let's trade the whole team while we're at it...

I wanted them to trade Wells a couple of years ago. Could of gotten a good package for him.

I never liked him because he's inconsistent.